blanket of ash
by hi jump kick
Summary: "I will die with my gym, and with my city." Flannery, Steven. A late Halloween special.


blanket of ash

/

_Some say the world will end in fire,_

_Some say in ice._

_From what I've tasted of desire_

_I hold with those who favor fire._

The town looks strange covered in soot, Flannery muses. She stands atop her gym, looking around at the ash that has decimated the town. Coughing, she tears off a section of her already-scant shirt and ties it around her nose and mouth.

She kneels, looks around. There are burned bodies all around, sinking into the sooty debris. Clutching at a pokeball, she thinks about calling out her torkoal, but thinks better of it. His weight might break the already-creaking roof.

Flannery knows she doesn't have much time before the roof collapses anyway, and sends her falling into a pile of ash. Her two slugma are gone, buried under a volcano's lifetime of ash.

She feels the roof creak again, and shudders despite the heat that emanates from Fallarbor in waves, threatening to overpower her, to send her into an unconsciousness from which she would never wake.

She hears a screech permeate the air, and through her haze of disorientation, she sees a metallic bird flashing through the air. Something is on its back.

The bird draws closer, and Flannery sees that it is not really a bird at all, but a raptor, a metal raptor.

Claws scrabble for purchase on the stucco, and a man dismounts deftly from the beast.

Steven is angry, understandably so. "Flannery, why? The destruction of the town, it was all your fault!"

Flannery merely looks up at him. She does not regret her actions, or her role in this disaster. "It was necessary."

Steven's eyes are ice, blue and cold. "Necessary for what?" he spits. "For bringing death and disaster to innocent people?"

Flannery closes her eyes. "No. I…I believed that what I did would help this planet. He…He told me it would. He said it would be okay."

Steven's brow furrows. "You were a gym leader, Flannery. You should have known better."

"I thought I did." Flannery finally chokes up, tears hitting her cheeks and the stucco roof, sending up puffs of steam.

The roof creaks unsteadily again, and Steven's skarmory screeches uneasily. Steven clambers back onto his pokemon, holding out an inviting hand to her. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

Flannery shakes her head, backing away like a shying ponyta. "No. I can't."

Steven is bemused. "Why?"

"I will die with my gym, and my city."

Steven narrows his eyes, and his stony cold façade disappears. "I won't let you, Flannery! This is not necessary! We can fix this!"

She shakes her head. "We can't." As she looks up at him, Steven notices that her eyes are pained, and aged far beyond her years. He also notices that her skin looks waxy, like a candle melting. "We can't fix it this time, Steven."

Steven is pained at the bittersweet memory. "Let me take you with me, Flannery. We can try."

Flannery shakes her head angrily. "No, Steven! Just go!" She advances on his skarmory, who growls threateningly. She enlarges a pokeball, sends out her torkoal. The pokemon sends out a jet of fire, and the skarmory leaps from the roof, hovering.

"Go!" Torn, Steven looks down at her, a small figure on the stucco roof, and is wrenched with indecision.

Another jet of fire arcs toward him, and the skarmory automatically dodges. When he looks back down at the roof, he is astonished to see that there is a gaping hole. Flannery is gone.

Frantically, he hovers over the hole, trying to catch a glimpse of the young woman, but all he can see is a wave of flames. His skarmory screeches softly.

Tears spring to the man's blue eyes, but he blinks them away. "Let's go, Skarmory. It was her choice." The metal bird obediently flies away from the remnants of the once-great town.

Steven looks back once, mourning the girl he once loved. Then, he banishes all thoughts from his mind.

Maxie would pay, he vowed.

_But if it had to perish twice,_

_I think I know enough of hate_

_To say that for destruction ice_

_Is also great_

_And would suffice._


End file.
